Erin Banco is a political journalist. Currently, she is a National Security Reporter at Politico, where her reporting focuses on intelligence. Previously, she was National Security Reporter at The Daily Beast. Banco's first book, "Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq’s Oil Wealth," was published in 2018. Banco received her B.A. in Journalism and in African Literature and Languages from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and her M.A. in International Media and Human Rights from Columbia University.